• Sen. Pat Toomey suggested the January 6 committee's hearing have hurt Trump, even among Republicans. 
  • The retiring senator says Trump's grip on the 2024 nomination is "much more tenous" now.
  • "I think we'll have a stronger candidate," said Toomey, suggesting Trump is weak.

Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania suggested on Thursday that the January 6 committee's ongoing public hearings have damaged former President Donald Trump politically, even among Republicans.

At the end of a wide-ranging interview with Bloomberg that primarily focused on a Supreme Court ruling affecting the Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Reserve's approach to tackling inflation, the retiring lawmaker was asked whether he believes the hearings will ultimately preclude Trump from seeking a second term as president in 2024.

"I don't know that it means that, I mean he gets to decide whether he's gonna run," said Toomey, who was one of seven Republican senators that voted to convict Trump for incitement of an insurrection following the riot.

"Look, I think he disqualified himself from serving in public office by virtue of his post-election behavior, especially leading right up to January 6," said Toomey. "I think the revelations from this committee make his path to even the Republican nomination much more tenuous."

Most recently, the committee received testimony from former White House staffer Cassidy Hutchinson, who testified that Trump knew the crowd assembled on the National Mall on January 6 was armed with weapons, said he was prone to throwing dishes and flipping tablecloths, tried to grab the steering wheel of his SUV when informed that he wasn't being taken to the Capitol on the day of the riot, and that both Mark Meadows and Rudy Giuliani sought pardons from Trump in the final days of his administration.

Members of the former president's inner circle told Insider that Hutchinson's testimony was "definitely the most damning day" of the entire session of hearings, and that her allegations were "real difficult to dismiss."

Toomey went on to suggest that the former president, still seen by most of the party as its undisputed leader and a shoe-in for the 2024 nomination, is in fact a weak candidate.

"You know, never say never — and he decides whether to throw his hat in the ring — but I think we'll have a stronger candidate," said Toomey.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read the original article on Business Insider